The current community pharmacy contractual framework and system of payments dates from 2005/06, with remuneration under those arrangements set out in the table below:

The budget figures in the table only cover essential and advanced services, as commissioned centrally under the community pharmacy contractual framework. Community pharmacies are also commissioned locally to provide services, originally by primary care trusts and more recently by NHS England, clinical commissioning groups and local authorities. Information on the level of funding received by community pharmacies for those locally commissioned services is not held centrally.

The Department published the allocations for the distribution of the additional funding for adult social care announced at the Spring Budget 2017 online on 9 March, together with an Explanatory Note concerning distribution.

This is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-allocations-of-the-additional-funding-for-adult-social-care.

As set out in the NHS Shared Planning Guidance, published in December 2015, the success of Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs) will depend on having an open, engaging, and iterative process that involves patients, carers, citizens, clinicians, local community partners including the independent and voluntary sectors, and local government through health and wellbeing boards.

NHS England expects local engagement as part of the STP process, building where appropriate on existing engagement through health and wellbeing boards and other local arrangements. In September 2016 it issued guidance “engaging local people” to support STPs to do this, which can be found here:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/engag-local-people-stps.pdf

Where plans propose service changes, formal consultation will commence shortly in line with good practice and legislative requirements.

Data are collected on the total delayed days during each month for all patients delayed throughout the month. The total number of delayed days in each year between 2011/12 (the first full year for which data are available) and 2015/16, for Barnsley, South Yorkshire and England are shown in the table below. As health is a devolved issue, the number of delayed days in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are not collected by NHS England.

Total number of delayed days in Barnsley, South Yorkshire and England

Source: NHS England, Delayed Transfers of Care Data

Notes:

¹South Yorkshire includes Barnsley, Sheffield, Rotherham and Doncaster Local Authorities.

Sustainability and Transformation Plans are locally developed plans, and it is expected that individual areas will take account of local circumstances including any workforce shortages.

School-level figures for spending per pupil are published annually. The most recent figures are available at:
https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/download-data (for maintained schools in financial year 2015-16, select: a) the academic year 2015 to 2016; b) data for All of England; and c) Spend per pupil (grouped data)),

and at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/income-and-expenditure-in-academies-in-england-2014-to-2015 (for academy schools in academic year 2014/15).

While speech and language are important components of the English National Curriculum and assessments, the Department only collects data of an overall expected standard in reading and writing. Information on the proportion of pupils achieving the expected standard in reading and writing is published at national, regional and local authority level as part of the “Phonics screening check and Key Stage 1 assessment” statistical first release.[1]

Parliamentary constituency level information is not available.

The Department for Education produces statistics on England only. The responsibility for education statistics in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales lies with each devolved administration.

[1] KS1 for 2015/16: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/577812/SFR42_2016_KS1_LA_tables.xlsx (Table 18 by local authorities’)

All 44 Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs) have now been published, and areas are working to engage local people as they turn their proposals into plans.

National Health Service organisations have also submitted their operational plans for 2017-19.

The additional £325 million announced in the budget will help STPs with the strongest projects make progress in improving care for local communities.

Funding for the free early years entitlements is allocated on a local authority basis. In 2016-17, the relevant hourly funding rates per child were as follows:

The figures given above relate to England. Childcare policy for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is devolved. In 2016-17, the national average hourly funding rate paid by the Department for Education to local authorities in England, is £4.51 for three and four-year-olds and £5.09 for two-year-olds.

All funding rates for three and four-year-olds are exclusive of the Early Years Pupil Premium which is an additional funding stream for disadvantaged children.

The new funding rates under our proposed early years national funding formula from 2017-18, can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/early-years-funding-changes-to-funding-for-3-and-4-year-olds

Funding for the free early years entitlements is allocated on a local authority basis. In 2016-17[1], the relevant hourly funding rates per child were as follows:

In 2016-17, the national average hourly funding rates paid by the Department for Education to local authorities in England is £4.51 for three and four year olds and £5.09 for two-year-olds.

All funding rates for three and four year olds are exclusive of the Early Years Pupil Premium which is an additional funding stream for disadvantaged children.

The figures given above relate to England. Childcare policy for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales is devolved.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2016-to-2017

The impact of the proposed changes will be highly sensitive to future ownership models that determine the rateable values to apply; it is therefore not possible to project this impact at present.

In 2014, 9,500 FTE employees were estimated to have been directly employed in the solar photovoltaic sector in the UK, including 9,000 in England. BEIS does not hold data that is broken down by region, and data for the solar thermal sector is not available.

Further detail can be viewed online through the UK Environmental Accounts: UK Solar Photovoltaic Sector 2014, (part of Low carbon and renewable energy economy, final estimates: 2014) at:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/environmentalaccounts/articles/ukenvironmentalaccountsuksolarphotovoltaicsector2014/uksolarphotovoltaicsector2014

https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/environmentalaccounts/datasets/lcreestimatesdataset.

Since 9 September 2016, when a revised package of measures was put to the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiation Committee (PSNC), the Department, supported by NHS England, has met the PSNC on four occasions. I have met PSNC three times since 30 August 2016, including on 6 October 2016.

Ministers are still in a process of considering a proposed package for the community pharmacy sector and are expecting to make an announcement shortly.

The Government’s proposals for community pharmacy in 2016/17 and beyond, on which we have consulted, are being considered against the public sector equality duty, the family test and the relevant duties of my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health under the National Health Service Act 2006.

Our assessments include impacts on other NHS services. An impact assessment will be completed to inform final decisions and published in due course.

Our proposals are about improving services for patients and the public and securing efficiencies and savings. We believe these efficiencies can be made within community pharmacy without compromising the quality of services or public access to them.

Our aim is to ensure that those community pharmacies upon which people depend continue to thrive. We are consulting on the introduction of a Pharmacy Access Scheme, which will provide more NHS funds to certain pharmacies compared with others, considering factors such as location and the health needs of the local population.

The extent to which a specific condition affects people will vary. If we were to provide automatic eligibility without further assessment by virtue of having dementia it may not reflect genuine need.

However, the ‘subject to further assessment’ criteria do not preclude the issue of badges to people with mental/cognitive disabilities. Any permanent and substantial disability may qualify for a badge if it causes “very considerable difficulty in walking”. It is for the local authority to assess the degree of challenge on a case-by-case basis.

The guidance was last updated in October 2014. There are no plans to update it at this time.

The extent to which a specific condition affects people will vary. If we were to provide automatic eligibility without further assessment by virtue of having dementia it may not reflect genuine need.

However, the ‘subject to further assessment’ criteria do not preclude the issue of badges to people with mental/cognitive disabilities. Any permanent and substantial disability may qualify for a badge if it causes “very considerable difficulty in walking”. It is for the local authority to assess the degree of challenge on a case-by-case basis.

The guidance was last updated in October 2014. There are no plans to update it at this time.

No publication date has yet been finalised. The Department remains committed to publishing the full and final impact assessment alongside any Drug Tariff determination.

My Department regularly reviews the impact of changing economic conditions on business including in specific sectors such as steel. We also talk regularly to companies to understand their view on market conditions including in formal meetings such as sector councils.

Steel companies are impacted differently by exchange rates depending on the balance of raw materials they import from outside the UK and the location of their export markets.

Officials have been undertaking impact analyses to inform the final impact assessment both prior to, and during, the consultation period which ran from 17 December 2015 to 24 May 2016. The Department remains committed to publishing the full and final impact assessment alongside any Drug Tariff determination.

The department collects information from each local authority (LA) on the current number of school places and LA’s firm plans for the delivery of additional places over the next three years, through the annual school capacity survey (SCAP).

As at May 2015 there were 475,707 primary places and 375,888 secondary places at maintained mainstream schools across Yorkshire and Humber. At that point in time LAs across Yorkshire and Humber reported they had firm plans for delivery of an additional 17,919 places by 2017/18. The number of new places for which LAs have firm plans for delivery, through academic years 2015/16, 2016/17 and 2017/18 is available in table A7 of the attached and is available on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-capacity-academic-year-2014-to-2015

The data represents a snapshot in time and LAs will have delivered and developed plans for many more new places since.